Sunday, June 19, 2016

Small Change (1976)

Others may have different
takes on his style, but to my way of thinking, François Truffaut was
essentially a novelist who used film frames instead of words, because his best
films combine innovative film techniques with traditional literary devices to
convey painful and sweet truths about the human condition. As such, Truffaut’s
work was often best when he locked into the perspective of a unique protagonist
or, as in the case of romantic-triangle stories, an interlocked group of
protagonists. Perhaps that’s why Small
Change didn’t work for me. In addition to being a gimmick picture, since
all the major characters are children, it’s an ensemble movie without a strong
overarching storyline. To belabor the analogy to fiction writing, Small Change is like a set of loosely
connected stories rather than the unified statement of a novel. Some of the
picture’s vignettes are interesting, whether funny or sad or a combination of
both sensations, while others make less of an impact. But the lack of truly
complicated characters—an occupational hazard when exploring the lives of
people whose personalities have not yet fully formed—means that Truffaut can’t
really do what he does best. That said, even mediocre Truffaut is better than
the finest work lesser filmmakers can render.

Tracking the loosely connected
lives of several children who attend a school in Thiers, France, Small Change—originally titled L’argent de poche, or Pocket Money—has moments of great
humanity. The subplot of a poor child hiding the truth about his life in an
abusive household is handled with sensitivity, and the subplot of a wide-eyed
boy nurturing a crush on his friend’s sexy mom is playful and restrained.
Perhaps most interesting scenes are those depicting the adventures of a boy who must aid in his
paralyzed father’s caretaking. Yet some moments seem like clips from another
movie. In one such scene, an infant climbs onto a windowsill to chase after a
cat, and then several bystanders watch in horror from several stories below as
the child tumbles from the window. The resolution of the scene makes zero sense
dramatically or logically, although it sorta-kinda serves Truffaut’s theme
about the resilience of children as compared to the selfishness and stupidity
of adults. Small Change isn’t a bad
picture by any measure, and some viewers will undoubtedly find it affecting and
unique. For me, Small Change came
across like a rhythm in search of a melody—I felt too strongly the absence of a
distinctive central character, whose journey might have given clarity and focus
to the picture’s meandering episodes.

2 comments:

"n infant climbs onto a windowsill to chase after a cat, and then several bystanders watch in horror from several stories below as the child tumbles from the window. The resolution of the scene makes zero sense dramatically or logically"

I loved this movie! Yes, the improbable fall makes zero sense - but it made me laugh out loud, so to hell with sense or logic. Loved the little girl left alone in the apartment hanging out the window shouting 'I have nothing to eat!'at the neighbours.

Great blog, by the way. I stumbled across it by accident and have discovered so many things to put on my must-watch list.